It's been a while now since Xbox announced that it was saying goodbye to four studios in Double Fine, Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs back in July, and now two of them have confirmed they've completed the split.

Double Fine's Tim Schafer appeared on a recent episode of the Kinda Funny Games podcast to explain that "buying any of our games helps support the studio" from this point onwards (rather than Microsoft specifically), but you might still see Xbox Game Studios as the publisher for some time yet as it "just takes a while for it to all process".

He also announced that Double Fine will be hosting a Game Jam, Documentary and Kickstarter campaign where backers can choose which of their ideas will be turned into four new prototypes - one of which will become an actual game. There are other unknown projects in the works at the studio right now as well, and the recent release of Kiln will continue to get new maps and modes in the future too.

Meanwhile, Compulsion Games CEO Guillaume Provost also confirmed to GamesBeat that they're in the process of reacquiring all of their IP back from Microsoft, but that buying any of their games right now will support the studio.

The idea for the South of Midnight developer is to "keep making interesting, weird stories and weird worlds", but they're "going to take things slow" and "make sure that we’re setting the team up for success".

He also says that the management buyout to become independent was a "pretty good deal" overall:

"Everything is relative. Compared to all of us losing our jobs on July 6, this is a pretty good deal. I would say the exit was gracious on Microsoft’s part."

"I just want to make sure that we’re setting the team up for success. We’re going to take things slow. We’re going to meet with everyone."

We've absolutely adored playing games from both of these studios over the years (and the decades in Double Fine's case!), and we look forward to whatever else they have in store for us in the future - hopefully still on Xbox consoles.

Now, we await to hear more from Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and a potential fifth studio in Arkane about what their next plans are for the future, and here's hoping every one of these companies will be able to bounce back with some incredible new projects in the future.

[source ign.com]